{"id":2254351,"date":"2024-05-28T15:01:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservative-candidates-for-federal-office-should-continue-to-support-babies-mothers-and-life\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T15:02:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:02:52","slug":"conservative-candidates-for-federal-office-should-continue-to-support-babies-mothers-and-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservative-candidates-for-federal-office-should-continue-to-support-babies-mothers-and-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Federal Candidates Should Uphold Support for Babies, Mothers, and Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fconservative-candidates-for-federal-office-should-continue-to-support-babies-mothers-and-life%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254351&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text provides an overview \u200dof a speech by Michael Knowles at the\u200b University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign\u200b regarding the complex \u200clandscape of political alliances, particularly focusing\u2064 on the sensitive issue\u2062 of abortion. It discusses conservative politicians&#8217; shifts \u2064on abortion,\u2063 President Trump&#8217;s stance, comparisons with \u2063past presidents, and\u200d the critical examination of \u2064candidate Kari \u200cLake&#8217;s abortion platform.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the first part of an edited <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/michael-knowles-offers-the-case-against-murder-an-anti-abortion-speech-at-university-of-wisconsin-madison\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">speech<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  delivered by <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/show\/the-michael-knowles-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Michael Knowles<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Who exactly are our friends? It\u2019s getting trickier to tell. More precisely, who are our political allies? If this speech had taken place a month or two ago, I would have had a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/san-francisco-da-boudin-says-exploding-crime-in-city-has-nothing-to-do-with-his-policies-effectively-legalizing-crime\/\" title=\"San Francisco DA Boudin Says Exploding Crime in City Has Nothing to Do With His Policies Effectively Legalizing Crime\">pretty clear answer<\/a>. Today, it\u2019s a little less clear \u2014 and that\u2019s thanks to one issue in particular: abortion. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the past few weeks, some conservative politicians have started moving to the Left on abortion. They\u2019re doing so because they fear that taking too strong of a pro-life stance will cost them their elections. And it\u2019s a fair concern. In order to accomplish anything in politics, one needs to win elections. To <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/320506-mcconnell-winners-make-policy-and-losers-go-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">quote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  Cocaine Mitch McConnell, \u201cWinners make policy, and the losers go home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">President Trump made this point recently when he unveiled the abortion plank of his platform. Just a week or so ago, President Trump reaffirmed that he\u2019s pro-life and that he favors exceptions in the case of babies conceived in rape or incest as well as in the case of a threat to the life of the mother. He went on to say that he opposes the regulation of abortion at the federal level and sides, instead, with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which declared abortion an issue <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/trump-releases-long-awaited-abortion-position-says-policies-should-be-left-to-states\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">for state legislatures to decide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some pro-lifers have criticized Trump for this stance. They wish, in the wake of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roe v. Wade<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2019s reversal, that he would go further. They wish he would come out in support of a national abortion ban \u2014 or even an additional Court ruling that would ban abortion on the basis of the 14th Amendment\u2019s Equal Protection Clause. Some have gone so far as to claim that President Trump is not a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-last-blue-dogs-local-democrats-call-on-party-to-save-hyde\/\" title=\"The Last Blue Dogs: Local Democrats Call on Party To Save Hyde\">pro-life candidate<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, I think, is unfair. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deeply <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">unfair. Because President Trump is the only reason we\u2019re even <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">having <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">this debate. President Trump is the reason <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roe v. Wade <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">was reversed in the first place. There have been six Republican presidents since <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roe v. Wade <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">invented a national license to abortion. Six Republican presidents since the first March for Life in 1974. President Trump is the first one to address the March. Nixon didn\u2019t show up. Ford didn\u2019t show up. Not even Ronald Reagan or either of the Bushes showed up. Just Trump. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And of the six Republican presidents since <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roe<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, President Trump\u2019s platform is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">at least <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">as pro-life as that of his predecessors. In some ways, it\u2019s even more so. Some forget that President Reagan actually legalized abortion in the state of California when he was governor. Now, I certainly do not mean to besmirch the memory of the Gipper, a great man who came to regret that decision and who later campaigned on behalf of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/covid-has-killed-her-hundreds-of-thousands-but-abortion-has-killed-her-tens-of-millions\/\" title=\"COVID Has Killed Her Hundreds of Thousands, But Abortion Has Killed Her Tens of Millions\">pro-life movement<\/a>. I just mention it to point out that some pro-lifers are holding President Trump to a far more exacting standard than any to which they have held his predecessors \u2014 a standard that seems particularly unfair since President Trump has done more than any Republican president or presidential candidate in history to protect babies in the womb. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am as pro-life as they come. I observed <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/michael-knowles-offers-the-case-against-murder-an-anti-abortion-speech-at-university-of-wisconsin-madison\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in a speech<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  a few weeks ago at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that abortion is intrinsically evil and that legal abortion is a historical aberration in America. That for most of American history, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">when <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the issue was addressed at all, abortion was simply outlawed. I observed that, until the Sexual Revolution of the mid-20th century, abortion became even more restricted the more scientists discovered about the origins and development of human life. If you\u2019d like to hear more of the moral and historical arguments against abortion, I encourage you to watch my University of Wisconsin-Madison lecture <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jas0TnmHOoA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">on YouTube<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  or read <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-pro-abortion-crowd-wants-to-pretend-that-infanticide-is-a-constitutional-right\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">part one<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/examining-the-lefts-position-on-killing-an-innocent-baby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">part two<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  via The Daily Wire. I would <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">happily <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">return to America\u2019s historical norm, which protected all innocent life. <\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/show\/the-michael-knowles-show\">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that\u2019s easy to say and harder to do, which is President Trump\u2019s point. He recognizes, as political philosophy has recognized since at least Aristotle, that prudence is the chief political virtue. We have to take the wins we can get today so that we can score even more wins tomorrow. We have to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, I\u2019m all for prudence. But some Right-wing politicians are going much further than President Trump prudential calculation. I\u2019m sorry to say that\u2019s what conservative Senate candidate Kari Lake has recently done. Kari Lake, whom I\u2019ve always liked, put out a new abortion platform. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/weta\/washingtonweek\/video\/2024\/04\/democrats-seize-opportunity-to-make-gains-after-arizona-abortion-decision\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  that abortion \u201cis such a personal and private issue. I chose life, but I\u2019m not every woman. I want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices so that she can make that choice that I made.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I said, I like Kari Lake, and she is, of course, far preferable to her liberal opponent, who describes the murder of babies as a \u201csacred right.\u201d So please consider this in the spirit in which it is intended: as a fraternal correction from someone who wants her to win, who hates to see her campaign torpedo itself, and who would especially hate to see other conservative campaigns torpedo themselves by following suit. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What\u2019s wrong with the statement? Everything, pretty much. It begins by calling abortion \u201ca personal and private issue.\u201d It is not. A personal and private issue is an issue that affects only an individual. \u201cWill I have a hot dog or a hamburger for lunch?\u201d is a personal and private issue. \u201cWill I murder my child?\u201d is not a personal or private issue because it affects someone else \u2014 namely, the child. That makes it a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">political <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">issue. Abortion is obviously a political issue. Politicians and voters have been debating it for more than 50 years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI chose life, but I\u2019m not every woman.\u201d <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, you\u2019re not every woman: You\u2019re a candidate for public office articulating your position on public policy. Would we ever accept this kind of rhetoric on any other political issue? \u201cI choose not to commit rape, I choose not to burglarize people\u2019s homes \u2026 but I\u2019m not every man.\u201d Does that mean we ought to permit other men to rape and burgle? I don\u2019t think so. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One chooses not to do those things because those acts are wrong. They\u2019re so obviously and egregiously wrong that we pass laws against them. Why did she choose not to abort her child? She chose not to abort her child because she knew it was wrong; she knew her child had a right to life. Is it good for some women not to murder their children but not for others? Is it good for some children to be allowed to live but not for others? Of course not. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To say, \u201cI would never <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">personally <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">have an abortion, but I think other people should be able to,\u201d is tantamount to saying, \u201cI would never snuff the life out of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">my <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">precious progeny, but I don\u2019t really care about yours. Throw him in the trash, for all I care.\u201d I don\u2019t think this is what the people who hold this view <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">intend <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to say, but that is what they\u2019re saying. That\u2019s what the statement means. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices so that she can make that choice that I made.\u201d <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Come again? That sentence is the nearest in the platform to being defensible. And it still misses the mark. If the sentence read, \u201cI want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more \u2026 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">resources <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2026 so that she can make that choice that I made,\u201d that would be perfectly fine. It would be quite good actually. \u201cI want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more \u2026 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">support<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">love<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">opportunity <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2026 so that she can make that choice that I made\u201d \u2014 great! I\u2019m all for it. But \u201cchoice\u201d? How does having a greater \u201cchoice\u201d to kill your child improve the odds that you won\u2019t? By definition, the expansion of such \u201cchoice\u201d would greatly decrease the odds that a mother chooses life. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, as I said: I like Kari Lake a lot, I hope her campaign corrects course and that she wins. So I want to be constructive here. What <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">should <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">her campaign say? Beyond the Arizona race, what should conservative candidates for federal office across the nation say about abortion in a hotly contested election year when the pro-life side has been losing at the ballot box? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It seems to me they should keep saying what they\u2019ve been saying that has scored us lots of wins. That is, they should say that they support life, they support babies and mothers, and they respect the Supreme Court precedent established in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dobbs <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that abortion is a matter for the states rather than the federal government. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This excerpt is from a speech by Michael Knowles at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Identifying our allies, especially political ones, has become complex. A month or two ago, the answer would have been clearer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":2254352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2023\/09\/5Knowles_2020_headshot-1-copy-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2023\/09\/5Knowles_2020_headshot-1-copy-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}